Losing Your Way
by Arra
Summary: Sirius Black gets a strange letter, meets his best friend for the first time and becomes lost forever in a pair of gold eyes. (pre-slash, prequal to Lost and Found)


AN: This is a prequal to my story Lost and Found.

Disclaimer: Do Remus and Sirius share a mind-blowing snog in the Shrieking Shack when Remus finds out Sirius is innocent? No? Then they're still not mine.

Losing Your Way

Eleven-year-old Sirius Black snuck out of his house, closing the door with utmost care so that he didn't wake his dad who was asleep on the couch. 

That morning, as he had stumbled past the letterbox en-rout to the kitchen to grab breakfast, he had noticed a weird looking letter pilled in among the bills and junkmail. Yellow paper with green calligraphy, and when he had picked it up to investigate he had noticed it was addressed to him. It had even gone so far as to state which bedroom he slept in.

He had ripped it open, barely noticing the wax seal in his haste to see what was inside and the phrase 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry" had been the first thing to catch his eye. He had read over the letter six times before he started to think it might be real. And it was as he had looked at the other papers included with the letter that he found directions to a place called Diagon Alley. And if that Diagon Alley place really existed, then maybe the strange magic school did too.

Mind made up, Sirius ran to his room, grabbed what little pocket money he had and slipped out the door.

He was so nervous that the entire bus ride there was excruciating and he spent most of it bouncing in his seat. But when he got to his destination he was disappointed, there wasn't anything strange or magical about it. He checked the instructions again. 'The Leaky Cauldron' was the name of the place to look for, but he'd gone up one side of the block and was halfway down the other and he hadn't found it. He paused in front of a dark and abandoned building to look up and down the street again, but he still didn't see it.

He sighed and closed his eyes, his head falling back to look sightlessly at the sky. And that was when he noticed the sign above his head. Dirty and faded, it was no wonder he had paid little attention to it before, but now that he was so close to it, the vague lettering suddenly stood out clear as day. 'The Leaky Cauldron.' Sirius grinned from ear to ear and entered the building almost at a run.

But he slid to a halt as soon as he was completely through the door and couldn't help but stare at the patrons sitting around the bar. They almost all wore cloaks and many had brightly colored, and funny shaped, hats. In one corner was a man that looked in danger of hitting his head on the hanging lamps, even while he was sitting down! And a woman off to his right was smiling at him with brown crooked teeth and a feral look in her eyes.

"Can I help you, young sir?" Sirius jumped and stared at the little bald man who had addressed him from behind the bar.

"Um, yeah. I'm looking for Diagon Alley," Sirius said, hoping he didn't sound like as big an idiot as he felt. "I need to get school supplies." He added hastily. At this the man smiled.

"Hogwarts, aye?" he said with a nearly toothless grin. "Good for you! Right this way," and with that the man came out from behind the bar and lead him all the way to the back alley. Sirius' heart sunk, thinking he had been tricked, but then the man pulled out a polished length of wood and tapped it against the back wall of the alley.

Sirius watched in awe as the brick wall rolled in on itself to form an archway above his head.

"There you go," said the bald man. "If you need anything, just come back out and ask. My names Tom." Sirius nodded and mumbled his thanks as he walked into Diagon Alley. He stood and stared at the cauldrons and brooms, wand shops and places that sold spell books, trying to take it all in. And it took a while for him to realize that it was all real, it wasn't some strange dream or hopeless fantasy. It. Was. Real. And he had in his pocket an invitation to become a part of this amazing world.

He was so intent on looking around him that he wasn't looking where he was going and ran right into someone. 

"Ach! Sorry!" he said quickly, backing up enough to be able to focus on the person he'd broadsided. A kid with tilted glassed and messy hair stared back at him quizzically. He would have looked completely normal except for the fact that over ordinary clothes he wore a black cloak fastened over his right shoulder.

"Sorry," the other boy said finally. His expression turned from curious to amused as he took in Sirius' attire.

"Are you lost?" he asked, not bothering to hide his grin. Sirius stiffened and crossed his arms over his chest.

"No. What makes you say that?" he said, not being able to keep as much of his annoyance out of his voice as he would have liked. The other boy help up his hands in a placating gesture.

"Nothing," he assured Sirius. "It's just that, if you where, I could show you around. But since you obviously know what you're doing, I'll be on my way." The boy had started to turn away, and Sirius stood there trying to figure out if he'd just been insulted when he realized he had no idea were to start or what to buy with the little money he had with him.

"Um, wait," the boy stopped and turned back to him, looking like he was trying very hard not to smile. "I'm a…bit rusty about this place, maybe you could help refresh my memory?" The other boy laughed even as he nodded.

"I'm James Potter by the way," he said, holding out his hand. Sirius smiled and shook it.

"Sirius Black." 

He spent the rest of the day being shown around Diagon Alley by James and learning about things like Galleons and goblins and gobstones. His companion had been horrified to learn that he had no idea what Quidditch was and spent a large portion of the day explaining and raving about the wizarding sport, as well as showing him around Quality Quidditch Supplies.

He ended up not buying anything, just changing his money from Pounds to Galleons so that he had some proof that what he was going to try and explain to his dad was real. 

Eventually James had to go home, and with a cursory introduction to Mr. Potter and a promise to 'owl' him (whatever that meant) he was gone.

Sirius rode the bus back to his house, rehearsing in his head how he was going to convince his dad to send him to a school he'd never heard of, where his son was going to be learning magic instead of important things, like cheating on standardized tests and do busy work.

But when he returned home, he found that his preparations weren't necessary, at least not for the moment, because his father had left the house and would probably not back for some time. So Sirius spent the rest of the day watching the telei an eating leftovers. Every once and a while he'd fish out the letter or the Galleons from his pockets and look at them, always expecting them not to be there, to wake up and find that the entire day was just a dream.

By midnight his father still hadn't come home, so Sirius went to bed with the plan of explaining everything the next morning. But, as it turned out, he never got the chance to go through his prepared speech.

Sirius was awoken horribly early by his dad pounding at the door to his room.

"I'm up! I'm up!" he yelled as he pulled himself, half asleep, from his bed and opened the door.

"What is this?" his father demanded, shoving a letter under his nose. Sirius took the letter and blinked at it, trying to figure out what about it had made his dad so mad so that he could try and calm him down.

All that it had written across it was 'To Sirius Black.' No postage, no return address, nothing.

"Do you know how that arrived this morning?" his father asked. Sirius shook his head. "An owl, a real feathery, in the flesh owl, dropped it in my cereal." With a sinking feeling in his stomach he remembered that James had said he was going to 'owl' him, and Sirius now feared he knew what he'd meant.

"I can explain," Sirius said quickly. "I go this letter yesterday and I went and tried to find the place they said to get my school thing at. The letter was from this really cool sounding boarding school. And it was actually there, but it was hidden behind a wall, the guy at the bar it was hidden in showed me how to get in. And I met this kid, he's really nice, his name's James and he said he'd owl me, but at the time I didn't know what he meant and I'm really sorry that his owl put my letter in your breakfast, so please don't be mad at me. If I'd known, I would have told James to call me or something, but I don't even know if he has a phone. And did I mention that this school teaches magic? And I'd really like to go. So can I?" Sirius said, panting slightly at the end of his long speech, he was pretty sure he hadn't breathed the whole time.

"Can I see the letter?" when Sirius held out James' letter his father frowned. "From the boarding school." He added, hitting Sirius not-so-lightly on the side of the head.

Sirius managed to duck most of the blow and ran to pull the letter from the trousers he'd worn yesterday that were now in a heap on his the floor. He handed it to his father and watched carefully as he read through it. His face bunched up into a grimace of disgust and he handed the letter back to Sirius.

"Okay, but get that owl out of the kitchen," he said, turning to go back down the hall.

"Okay?" Sirius asked, looking confused.

"You can go to that school," he said simply. Sirius whooped with delight and ran past his father to the kitchen. On one of the chairs around the breakfast table was perched a gold and white barn owl, just sitting there, as if it was the most normal thing in the world for a owl to do.

"You waiting for a reply to this aren't you?" he asked it. It just turned it's head nearly upside-down and hooted at him. Smiling goofilly at the owl, he ripped open the letter and read it.

~ Dear Sirius,

Remember me? We met yesterday in Diagon Alley. I wanted to know if you'd asked your dad about going to Hogwarts. Because if you have and he said yes, the I'm offering to held 'refresh' your memory again and help you get school supplies, since I'm going to go to Hogwarts to and it would be great to know someone before I get there. I told Archemedies to stay until you gave him a response. You did know about owls, right?

Sincerely,

James Potter ~

Sirius ran back to his room and grabbed a sheet of paper out from his notebook and quickly wrote a reply.

~ James,

Yes, I'm going to Hogwarts. And it would be great if we could get out stuff at the same time. That's great that you're going too. We're going to be in the same year, right? Just name the time and day and I'll meet you at the Leaky Cauldron. And no I didn't know about owls and my dad nearly skinned me alive because yours dropped my letter in his breakfast, but it's okay.

Hope to see you soon,

Sirius ~

He folded the letter up and held it out to Archemedies, who closed his beak over it and took off out of the still open kitchen window. 

He and James ended up sending letters to each other the rest of the summer and they met in Diagon Alley several more times than was strictly necessary. And by the time Mr. Potter took them both to platform 9 3/4 Sirius was absolutely certain that James Potter was the best friend he'd ever had.

"Come one James! We'll be late!" Sirius yelled as he ran across the platform towards the scarlet steam engine.

"No we won't!" James called back. "The train doesn't leave for another half hour! Sirius look out!" but too late. He'd been so focused on the train and James that he hadn't noticed the person standing in his path until he'd ran right into them.

"Sorry," he said, trying to steady himself from the impact before offering his hand to the person he'd knocked over. 

"It's alright," answered a soft calm voice and for the first time Sirius actually looked at the other person. And ended up looking into deep amber eyes half hidden by a fall of dark gold hair. For a moment Sirius felt like he couldn't breath and as he helped this…angel to their feet he couldn't help the silly grin that spread across his lips.

"Don't mind him, he's always this clumsy," James' voice broke in, startling Sirius out of his daze. He shot his friend a glare and then turned back to the angel he'd had to good fortune to run into. But the sight he found wasn't what he'd been expecting. Past the haunted, sweet eyes, the pale complicating with rosy cheeks and the soft honey colored hair…stood a boy not that much younger than Sirius. He watched Sirius nervously as he stared at him.

"I'm sorry," he said finally. "I should have been watching where I was going." But Sirius just blinked at him, his brain not quite comprehending what had just happened. This person, the one who'd taken his breath away, the one who'd made his heart skip a beat, was a boy!

"I'm James and this is Sirius. He's not usually this dim, but it's been a pretty stressful day." James said, elbowing Sirius in the ribs to get his attention. He shook his head vigorously and mumbled an apology as he forced his mind back into working order.

"What's your name?" he asked, smiling sheepishly at the other boy.

"Nice to meet you. You're a first year too, right?" he asked, back to normal from his earlier shock. Remus nodded to his question and he smiled. "Great! We are too. Why don't you share a compartment with us."

"Okay," Remus said hesitantly. At his assent, Sirius grabbed both his and James' wrists and pulled them toward the train.

The entire ride Sirius could hardly contain his excitement. It was ten times worse than his first bus ride to Diagon Alley, because now he knew it was real and he couldn't wait to see everything. He tried to talk to Remus a couple of times during the trip, but he always answered a question quickly and the turned back to the book he'd had his nose stuck in the entire time. By the time they arrived at Hogsmead station he was starting to get annoyed at the fact that the other boy seemed to be trying to ignore him completely.

During the sorting Remus got separated from him and James and it wasn't until after Sirius had been sorted into Gryffindor and he heard the other boy's name called that he saw him again.

He was overjoyed when Remus was sorted into Gryffindor too, but frowned when the other boy sat down almost as far from Sirius as he could. He was soon distracted, however, when James and another boy, Peter something, were sorted into Gryffindor as well.

The three of them were soon deep in conversation about what they thought school would be like. Sirius even tried again to get Remus to be part of their discussion, but the other boy continued to be polite but withdrawn, only talking when he was asked a direct question and the rest of the time only paying attention to his food.

It went on this way for weeks. Sirius would try to get Remus' attention, try and include him in whatever he and James were planing. But he was either ignored or given some lame excuse as to why Remus couldn't join in.

"Hey, Remus," Sirius said, going over to stand next to the chair the other Gryffindor had curled himself up in. "James and Peter and me are going to try and find the kitchens tomorrow night. You want to come too?"

he asked, hoping against hope that this time he'd say yes. But the other boy just shook his head.

"I can't…I…my mum's really sick, I'm going to go home for the weekend to visit her," Sirius' eyes narrowed in suspicion. Remus had used that excuse before, about a month ago. Last time he hadn't been so sure, but this time he knew the other boy was lying.

"Fine," Sirius said, his voice coming out sharper than he'd intended. He turned on his heels and walked away, fuming.

"You can't ignore me forever," he said, mumbling under his breath as he stalked up the stairs to their dorm room. "I won't let you." 


End file.
